Gregory Adkins Bloghttp://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/sort_entrydatetime-desc/ Is it a buyer's market, or a seller's market? Here's how to tell the difference.One important thing to remember about the property market is that it&rsquo;s always in a state of change. Sometimes the market is favorable to buyers and sometimes it&rsquo;s favorable to sellers. But don&rsquo;t worry, a knowledgeable agent can guide you in the sale or purchase of your next home, no matter what type of market you&rsquo;re facing.What is a Seller&rsquo;s Market?A seller&rsquo;s market is simply a property market that benefits you as a seller. In a seller&rsquo;s market, there&rsquo;s a scarcity of properties, which can drive up the price of homes, especially in desirable locations.Sellers can depend on real estate experts to know what the market is doing, but here are some signs of a seller&rsquo;s market:&ndash; Low inventory when compared to previous months and/or years&ndash; Homes are selling faster&ndash; Less than six months of inventory on the market&ndash; More homes are selling&ndash; Median sales prices are growing&ndash; Less information in real estate ads; just the bare details&ndash; &ldquo;For Sale&rdquo; signs don&rsquo;t stay up long before being replaced with &ldquo;pending&rdquo; or &ldquo;sold&rdquo;What is a Buyer&rsquo;s Market?A buyer&rsquo;s market is the opposite of the&nbsp;seller&rsquo;s market. If you&rsquo;re buying at this time you&rsquo;ll be spoiled for choice as the supply of homes on the market exceeds the number of buyers, giving you the chance to score a fantastic deal.A sharp agent will quickly be able to tell you where the market lies, but here are some signs of a buyer&rsquo;s market:&ndash; Inventory that is high when compared to previous months and/or years&ndash; Homes are selling more slowly&ndash; More than six months in inventory on the market&ndash; Sales prices are shrinking&ndash; Fewer sales are taking place&ndash; Real estate ads are growing in size, giving more details and/or images&ndash; &ldquo;For Sale&rdquo; signs are staying longer, meaning the days on the market are longer tooHow Do I Figure out the Months of Inventory in a Market?1. Look for the total number of active listings for the month prior to the current one2. Look for the total number of sold or closed transactions for the same time frame3. Divide the total number of listings by the number of sales. This figure represents the number of months of inventory there are.For example, let&rsquo;s say there were 6,500 listings in one month&rsquo;s time. During that same time, there were 1,500 properties that were sold. Divide 1,500 into 6,500 and you arrive at 4.3 months of inventory, meaning that this is a seller&rsquo;s market.While a savvy real estate agent is the best resource for this information, other resources include real estate listing websites and/or your local real estate association.Do All Markets Follow the Same Cycles?Markets are always in a state of flux. At its core, people are the driving force behind the real estate market.For example, as more people move into a location, the more need there is for housing. If the number of properties in the area cannot support the number of people moving in, prices of existing homes will likely rise until more homes can be built.This constant change to the supply and demand in a market is how markets shift back and forth from being more favorable for either buyers or sellers.Can I Buy in a Seller&rsquo;s Market?Absolutely, but it&rsquo;s not going to be a walk in the park. You&rsquo;ll need determination, knowledge, and most importantly, someone on your side who knows the market inside and out.Something to consider &ndash; you don&rsquo;t know the seller&rsquo;s true reasons for wanting to sell. Maybe there&rsquo;s a divorce pending or another baby on the way and they need more space fast. Whatever is going on with the seller, a savvy agent will spot opportunities to help you and the seller arrive at a mutually agreeable solution.One key reason it&rsquo;s vital to engage an agent in a seller&rsquo;s market is for their negotiating skills. While it&rsquo;s important to always negotiate, a seller&rsquo;s market calls for serious help to ensure that you don&rsquo;t pay more than you need to.Should I Wait to Sell?It depends. Is it mandatory that you sell right now or could you wait until it&rsquo;s a seller&rsquo;s market again?Consult with an agent to get his opinion about your chances of getting what you need or want for the sale of your home. He just might have some options you may not have considered that will help you get out from under your home and get on with your life.Don&rsquo;t be afraid to sell or buy if you think the market isn&rsquo;t in your favor. The real estate market can be highly varied, so trust&nbsp;your agent&nbsp;to help you get the best possible results, no matter what the market looks like.http://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/424/is-it-a-buyer's-market,-or-a-seller's-market?-here's-how-to-tell-the-difference./ Fri, 28 Jul 2017 12:00:00 -0600How Much House Can You Afford?HOUSE POOR&nbsp;[adjective |&nbsp;hous &ndash; poo&middot;r] A person who can afford his or her home mortgage payments, but can&rsquo;t afford much of anything else. Discretionary spending on restaurants, furnishings, travel and clothes are severely cut back, due to a large proportion of his or her income going towards the mortgage payments, upkeep costs, and energy/utility bills.You don&rsquo;t want to find yourself stuck at home while your friends are out having fun. Buying more home than you can afford comfortably will place serious restraints on your financial life. This doesn&rsquo;t sound like fun, does it?Sure, you want a nice home. But you also want to make sure that it fits in the landscape of the rest of your life.Here are the ABC&rsquo;s of finding a dream house that you can&nbsp;reasonably&nbsp;afford.Assess Your RatiosFinding that magic mortgage number of how much home you can realistically afford.Front-End Ratio:&nbsp;A front-end ratio is also known as the mortgage-to-income ratio. You can find this ratio by using a&nbsp;debt to income calculator&nbsp;or simply by dividing your projected monthly mortgage payments by your gross monthly income. For example, if your monthly mortgage payment would be $1,500 and your monthly income is $6,000, your front-end ratio would be 1500/6000 or 25%This projected mortgage payment should include the principal, taxes, insurance, and interest payments. Many lenders have limits on the maximum front-end ratio that they&rsquo;ll permit. If you&rsquo;re seeking an FHA loan, the federal cap on front-end ratios is a 31% percent limit.Back-End Ratio: Your debt-to-income ratio is your back-end ratio. The back-end ratio can be found by adding all of your monthly debt payments, including your car payments, credit card payments and any other outstanding debt, then dividing this number by your gross monthly income, which is the amount earned before taxes or other deductions.The higher your back-end ratio is, the more difficult it is to meet your monthly mortgage payments. Lenders will also have maximum caps on this. The absolute highest back-end ratio you can have and still qualify for an FHA mortgage is 43%.Pause and reflect on whether or not you should borrow as much as you qualify for.Consider your own ratios. Do you want to allocate your money elsewhere besides your mortgage? What percentage of your income do you feel comfortable spending on your mortgage?Bet on LifeAre you starting a new career? Returning to graduate school? Do you plan on growing your family? If you don&rsquo;t expect any big changes to your life or finances, then you may be able to afford a larger mortgage payment. If you do have life plans that will impact your finances in the near future, it may be best to secure a more manageable mortgage payment.Also, job security is critical when deciding how much home you can afford. How long have you been working? Do you suspect any major upheavals in the company anytime soon? Have there been any major layoffs?You never know what the future holds, make sure that you have an emergency fund that can cover all of your necessary expenses while you get back on your feet. An emergency fund should cover at least three to six months of your living expenses.If you haven&rsquo;t built this fund yet, plan out how you can put some dollars towards creating these reserves before you decide how much you want to spend on buying a house.Calculate Other Monthly ExpensesYour total monthly expenses will affect how much home you&rsquo;re able to afford.Calculate&nbsp;all&nbsp;of your expenses, such as groceries, gas, dining out, clothes, miscellaneous goods, toiletries, cosmetics, utilities, and car expenses. Don&rsquo;t forget to include line-items for travel, holidays and other annual expenses. Forgetting to calculate these annual or biannual expenses can have a reverberating impact on your ability to afford your home.Once you&rsquo;ve added these numbers, look at how much wiggle room you have left. Think about how much you want to spend on your home, while still leaving a buffer for any other costs that might creep up. After all, more savings is always a good thing.http://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/415/how-much-house-can-you-afford?/ Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:00:00 -0600Coldwell Banker Real Estate Gets Vocal – Announcing Our First Amazon Alexa SkillWe&rsquo;ve all heard that real estate is local, but Coldwell Banker has put its own spin on the adage, declaring all real estate is&nbsp;Vocal&nbsp;by announcing its first Amazon Alexa Skill, which will be available by the end of June.What&rsquo;s a Skill?&nbsp;An Amazon Alexa Skill is essentially an app for Amazon&rsquo;s voice controlled Echo speakers.How does it work?&nbsp;By prompting Amazon&rsquo;s voice assistant with&nbsp;&ldquo;Alexa, Ask Coldwell Banker for the Home of the Week,&rdquo;&nbsp;users will hear a one-minute description of a featured Coldwell Banker listing and can be connected to their local Coldwell Banker office. The Skill is an extension of the Home of the Week video series which profiles the hottest Coldwell Banker listings each week.Why develop the Skill?&nbsp;Consumer demand spurred development of the skill after a January Coldwell Banker survey found that&nbsp;72% of consumers with smart home tech&nbsp;wanted voice control products. Coldwell Banker also surveyed nearly 1,000 Coldwell Banker real estate professionals and found that 79% of respondents report that home buyers are interested in smart home technology, underscoring growing demand for voice controlled assistants and other smart home devices.Not only will this fulfill consumer demand, it will also provide agents with the ability to market their listings in a new and exciting way. Alexa users will be connected with their local Coldwell Banker office through the Alexa smartphone app.What is the first Home of the Week on deck?&nbsp;The Skill will debut with a gorgeous property in Beverly Hills listed by&nbsp;Jade Mills. This&nbsp;$34.9 million estate&nbsp;boasts breathtaking 360 degree vistas and also stuns users audibly through the Skill.How can I try this out for myself?&nbsp;If you have an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, you can search for the Coldwell Banker Home of the Week Skill in the Amazon Alexa smartphone app, or simply ask Alexa to &ldquo;Enable Coldwell Banker Home of the Week&rdquo; later this month.If you don&rsquo;t already own an Echo or Echo Dot &ndash; you&rsquo;re in luck! Coldwell Banker is thrilled to announce that the Echo Dot will be joining its&nbsp;existing Smart Home Staging Kit&nbsp;alongside products from Nest, August and Lutron. Now homeowners and agents showing smart homes can control the house&rsquo;s core functions through simple voice commands.Interested in buying your own kit? Be sure to visit&nbsp;SmartHomeStaging.com&nbsp;and speak to your Coldwell Banker agent to take advantage of the exclusive promotional pricing!So what&rsquo;s next? Coldwell Banker looks forward to expanding its voice control capabilities for agents, buyers and sellers in the near future. Stay tuned!Photo credit to Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliateshttp://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/409/coldwell-banker-real-estate-gets-vocal-–-announcing-our-first-amazon-alexa-skill/ Thu, 08 Jun 2017 12:00:00 -0600How to Make Moving a Little Bit EasierLet&rsquo;s be honest: moving is almost always unpleasant. Whether you&rsquo;re moving from one neighborhood to the next or across the country, the process is often time-consuming, stressful and expensive. Plus, if you&rsquo;re moving somewhere you&rsquo;ve never been before, the uncertainty can be terrifying.However, moving is a fact of life for most of us. The average person in the U.S. is expected to move 11+ times in his or her life,&nbsp;according to U.S. Census data. Want help making your next move a little bit easier? Check out these four tips:Use your real estate agent: It&rsquo;s easy to look things up on the internet, but if you really want to know what the area you&rsquo;re moving to is like, ask your real estate agent. Not only can they give you the lo-down on schools and neighborhoods, but they can show you the best places to eat, shop and more. By definition, agents have to be experts of their respective areas. You might as well use their knowledge to get acclimated to your new hometown and help quell your concerns.Consider moving before you buy: No matter how much research you do, it can be difficult to truly know what it&rsquo;s like to live in an area until you get there. If this is a major concern for you, consider getting a short-term rental while you look for a house to buy. Once you&rsquo;ve lived somewhere for a few months, you&rsquo;ll feel more confident about the precise location you want to put down roots. Be sure to use your real estate agent to help you get a rental.Purge three months before moving: One of the most strenuous parts of moving is deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Especially if you&rsquo;ve lived somewhere for a long time, you&rsquo;ve likely accumulated a lot of &ldquo;stuff.&rdquo; Because it&rsquo;s so unpleasant, many people put off purging until the last minute and end up packing items they simply don&rsquo;t need. If you purge in advance, it will not only be easier to pack, but you&rsquo;ll also prevent accidentally tossing out something you wanted to keep.Label boxes by room: One of the biggest mistakes many people make when moving is not labeling their boxes properly &ndash; or not labeling them at all. Unpacking can be a nightmare if boxes aren&rsquo;t labeled, and the best way to label boxes is by room. That way, either you or your movers can put all of the boxes in the correct room right away. Also, relating to the last tip, feel free to have a &ldquo;Maybe Get Rid Of&rdquo; box. This can help expedite the purging / packing process, and it&rsquo;ll be easier to decide whether or not you want to keep something in your new space.http://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/408/how-to-make-moving-a-little-bit-easier/ Mon, 05 Jun 2017 12:00:00 -0600A Home with Somebody to LoveRalph Waldo Emerson most notably penned the phrase &ldquo;A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.&rdquo;&nbsp;While a roof over our head provides shelter, it is the love inside the home that makes it a refuge. While the walls of a house protect us from the elements, it is the love inside the home that protects us from everything else. While the foundation of a house keeps our feet out of the mud, it is the love inside the home that carries us over all of the other obstacles in life.&nbsp;At&nbsp;Coldwell Banker, our calling is to help people find a place to call home, and if love is what makes a house a home, we wanted our campaign to highlight how even the smallest of things can fill it with love. This year our campaign was created to remind everyone that home is the place where love resides, and those looking to add more love into their lives need only look at adding a small addition to it &ndash; a four-legged one.&nbsp; For the past two years, we have&nbsp;worked with AdoptAPet.com&nbsp;to help find homes for more than 20,000 adoptable dogs. A dog&rsquo;s unconditional love, eternal forgiveness and innate ability to help you melt the day&rsquo;s stress away is what can turn any day, regardless of its troubles, into a joyful occasion upon entering that front door.&nbsp;The physical and emotional shelter that home provides is one of the single greatest investments anyone can make, and adopting a dog into it. makes it even more valuable. Find out how you can help find homes for adoptable dogs through the Coldwell Banker Homes for Dogs Project at&nbsp;coldwellbanker.com/homesfordogs.&nbsp;&nbsp;Whether love is represented by family, friends, passion or even a furry friend, we hope your home is filled with &ldquo;Somebody to Love.&rdquo;http://www.adkinsfamilygroup.com/blog/383/a-home-with-somebody-to-love/ Wed, 05 Apr 2017 12:00:00 -0600